The Piggy Bank Cryptographic Trope

Abstract: This paper presents applications of the trope of the locked and sealed piggy-bank into which the secret can be easily inserted but from which it cannot be withdrawn without opening the box. We present a basic two-pass cryptographic scheme that can serve as template for a variety of implementations. Together with the sealed piggy-bank is sent a coded letter that lists and certifies the contents of the box. We show how this idea can help increase the security of cryptographic protocols for classical systems as well as those based on "single-state" systems. More specifically, we propose the use of a hashing digest (instead of the coded letter) to detect loss of key bits to the eavesdropper and use in communication systems where error correction is an important issue.